Impressions
by Wickedly Caskett
Summary: First impressions can leave lasting memories of a person, even years later. During a planning session for the Johanna Beckett fundraiser, a certain writer flashes back to a book signing where he met a very memorable detective to be... Caskett one-shot.


**Whew haven't written in a while... Been busy with school and what not. Also haven't had any inspiration... until I checked the tumblr Ask the 12th the other day. Inspired by the answer on http:/ castlesays. tumblr. com /post /14610508629 of course without the spaces. Enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: Castle isn't mine and neither is the tumblr Ask the 12th.**

It was a nice day today. Sun was out. Was a bit chilly, but not too cold. Castle was currently walking over to Beckett's apartment to consult her on the planning of the Johanna Beckett scholarship fundraiser. He had been making regular trips to her loft lately; ironing out all of the little details he felt she should be a part of... which was all of them. Today it was about flowers. Wonderful.

He never really enjoyed all of the planning nonsense for anything, except maybe Alexis' birthday parties when she was little. She always had the best birthday parties if he said so himself. But for big events like his own weddings, he had tried to stay out of the planning as much as possible. Not that that was a problem with Gina or Meredith. They both had had a habit of actually kicking him when they were planning. It was weird, you'd think he'd be more interested in planning but... he just wasn't. But this event, this event he wanted to be perfect. Perfect. For her. For her mom. For what they both deserved. And he wanted Kate to love every detail of it as well. If that meant dealing with planning, so be it.

He fumbled with the key she had given him a while back and entered her building, heading up the elevator to her floor. Walking down the familiar winding hallway he stopped at her door. He knocked and she didn't leave him waiting long. Almost seemed like she had been waiting at the door for him... suppose it was fully possible she had been, he had called in advance after all. The door opened and he was met with a very smiley Kate Beckett.

"Hey Castle," she said, letting him in, "What is it?"

"Planning again," he said, smiling, "Flowers."

She groaned and brushed some hair out of her face, saying "Joy. If we're planning I'm gonna need to change out of this though. I didn't have time to change before you showed up."

As she headed towards her bedroom to change he noticed she was still wearing her work outfit. Likely just got home from filling out paperwork at the precinct. He, as normal, had left soon after they begun paperwork. Mostly because Gates would sooner murder him then let him fill out paperwork, so all he really did was sit around and annoy Beckett. In its own way that was fun, true, but it was also kinda boring. Especially on those days when she was in a bad mood... such as today. Seemed like the detective had cheered up since then.

The bedroom door was still closed, and he took the time to explore the detective's apartment some more. He wandered over to the staircase near her kitchen, smiling, as always, at the books haphazardly piled on top of them. When he had asked about it a while ago she had said she ran out of bookshelf space, and that those were her favorites. He, however, had never really looked at what these books were. Had guessed what they would be, sure, but never actually proved any of those theories. He walked along her kitchen set and peeked at titles as he went. A lot of mystery novels, as he expected. Many of them the books of his poker buddies. He had peeked in some of her mystery novels before when she wasn't looking and Beckett had scrawled notes all over the pages, figuring out the cases in the margins. She was right every single time in the ones he had peeked into. What else was there besides mystery though? Hm… Novel version of Serenity? Suppose he had seen the nerd side of Beckett before but it was still different for her. He had to say though... that Captain Mal fellow? He was almost as ruggedly handsome as he was. Almost.

On the top step he noticed something that made him grin. Every single book of his, literally every book of his ever published, lay in a neat pile on the step. From his first published novel all the way through the Nikki Heat series. All hardcover. Guess she truly was a total fan… though he had really known that from the start. She didn't hide it nearly as well as she thought she did. He looked down the books for a specific title, finding it on the top of the rest. It was _Storm Rising, _the first book in his Derrick Storm series. He opened it, smiling at the signature. He remembered that signing well, so well…

* * *

><p><em>It was the signing for the first book in his new series, focused around a character he named Derrick Storm. He personally loved the name he had created. Something about the whole noun-for-a-last-name made everything cooler. It really did. And titles? About a hundred times easier to do in caffeine induced haze with the last-name-is-a-real-word deal. He had based Storm off an old friend of his who had dreamed of being a detective but just wasn't cut out for it. As to how the book itself was doing, Paula had mentioned earlier that all the reviews were raves, as usual. He calmly looked up at the next giddy fangirl and the girl looked ready to scream in that special way only fangirls can.<em>

_"How are you? To whom do I have the privilege to make this signature?" he said, flashing his most charming smile. The teenage girl beamed back._

_"Gracie," she blurted out quickly, "I'm Gracie. And... I… I really just… ohmygoodness I'm just so excited to be meeting my favorite author. Like I can't even express it in words how excited I am."_

_He smiled warmly at her and handed the book back, "Glad to know it Gracie. Thanks for coming out."_

_The girl hurried off, seemingly bursting with happiness. He chuckled to himself as the next spastic fangirl approached. Time passed fairly quickly as he continued to rotate the stock phrases he used at signings that made all the fangirls faint. Soon, the line was nearly all gone. Thank goodness. He looked up to see how many there were left, originally planning to look past the next fangirl to check out the line. However, this particular woman caught his eye as soon as he got one glimpse of her._

_She was different from all the other crazy fans. He could feel her excitement, but it wasn't like the others'. They were like hyper little dogs when their owner gets home after being gone all day or when they're playing with their favorite toy. This woman instead had an air of strength and sophistication… her excitement was definitely an undercurrent, but that didn't mean it was nonexistent. She was still very excited; he could see that flash in her eyes. And after all, who wouldn't be excited to meet him? _

_Wasn't only her bearing that was different though than the others, no... She was beautiful, like everyone else, but... again, different somehow. She was young, twenty-four give or take a little, but her (gorgeous!) eyes held a… a… pain and strength. The kind of pain and strength that comes through great suffering. Something that you never found in someone her age, so young. Something you didn't find in a lot of people actually. Brunette locks were pulled back into a simple messy bun at the nape of her neck. Something glinted on her belt, something that looked suspiciously like a police badge. Unusual. She was biting her lip._

_"Hello," he said, smiling at her, "How are you? Who should I make this out to?"_

_"Hello," she answered with a calm smile, "I'm great, thanks. And Kate. You can make it out to Kate."_

_Their eyes locked for a moment, green meeting blue, and even that tiny moment of contact burned through him like fire. She broke away her gaze first, eyes dropping to the book as he began to sign… only to discover the pen was out of ink. He waved at an assistant nearby, pointing at the pen. The assistant nodded and hurried off to find one. The box of pens they had had earlier was all but depleted as more fans than usual had come out today. Suppose in NYC it was to be expected._

_"Looks like we're stuck waiting for a moment," he said, "And my sincerest apologies if this is prying but… My ceaseless curiosity was wondering if that was a police badge you have there?"_

_Kate looked a little wary at first but her face relaxed as she decided to answer, "Yes. I'm in training to become a homicide detective. Captain says I'll probably make it in one, one and a half years. I'll be the youngest woman to make it in the NYPD if that happens. Only know that from some of my other detectives-in-training though. I didn't know people kept track of those things until someone mentioned it to me."_

_He raised his eyebrows at that. Impressive. Perhaps that's why she seemed so different, didn't get a lot of detectives obsessing over murder mysteries. Especially one as accomplished as Kate must be, being so young._

_"That's great," he said, smiling at her. She blushed as she gave him an uneasy smile. The assistant rushed up with the pen._

_"Ah, looks like we can finally continue," he said, smiling again. He signed the book, mulling over what he would write for a moment. This one would be special._

_"To Kate,_

_I couldn't think of a better partner in crime._

_-Richard Castle"_

_He wrote it out, signing with a flourish as he handed it back._

_"It was great to meet you," he said, "Thanks for coming out."_

_She nodded, "It was great to meet you too."_

_She turned to walk away and he watched her walk away with a confident stride. He found himself smiling without thinking about it. Huh. Quite an impression she had made… He turned to look at the next wave of fangirls, but detective-to-be Kate remained on his mind for quite some time._

* * *

><p>He grinned at the memory, closing the book. He had never expected he'd see her again. Never expected it. Never really forgot her either. Especially never expected to meet under the circumstances they had met in. Life was weird sometimes. Threw these sorts of things at everyone… including getting snuck up on by the very person who you were just thinking about.<p>

"See you've been busy digging into my library, Castle," she said, leaning against the table directly behind him. He jumped, squeaking, thankfully having placed the book down before she freaked him out like that. She laughed at him as he turned around. The detective had changed into jeans and a casual cream top. He pouted.

"That was mean Beckett," he said, "Don't go around freaking me out like that!"

She shrugged, "Sorry Castle, but it's far too easy and tempting to scare you like that for me to ever stop. And… well it seemed like you were remembering something and I didn't want to interrupt by announcing my arrival earlier."

He made a face at her and she laughed again. Oh how he loved that sound… she seemed to laugh more these days since the tiger. He guessed a starving tiger trying to eat you can really change the way you look at things.

"Hope you're not upset I wanted to take a look," he said. She shook her head.

"No, it's fine, Castle," she said, "Now, didn't we have planning to do? Unless of course you'd rather keep digging into my collection of your books to boost your evergrowing ego."

"Hey! I do not have an everygrowing ego," he whined as she raised an eyebrow at him, "Alright I guess I do. But only a _little_. And you're right that we have planning to be doing."

They went into the living room to settle on her sofa. He set a large book between them that the planner had given him and couldn't help but think of planning a wedding. Their wedding. Ryan and Jenny's recent wedding had stirred so many thoughts about this, and apparently in her mind as well. The looks that had passed between them during the wedding were proof of this, to them and to everyone else apparently. They had certainly not gone unnoticed by a certain sassy ME. And with the gala planning and all… it just made him think about that. More than usual. He shook his head slightly to clear the thoughts and returned back to the land of roses and carnations and whatever-the-heck-those-flowers-were-called.

"Did your mom have a favorite flower?" he asked, flipping through the endless pages of flowers slowly. She shook her head, brow furrowed as she brushed hair out of her face.

"Not that I can remember, no," she said, "Though if you give me a second I might."

He nodded and she bit her lip, thinking. They sat in a comfortable silence for a minute or so, and he absentmindedly flipped pages even though nobody was looking at them.

"Got it," she said, eyes lighting up suddenly as he turned to look at her, "They were orange roses. She said the color, the scent... they just made her happy."

He nodded, "Orange roses it is then."

Flipping through the pages, they found an arrangement that suited the benefit. There was an odd resemblance to the bouquet that he had given her in the hospital... weird. He wasn't sure if she noticed it or not.

"Looks like I'll get going then," he said, getting up.

"Wait Castle," she said, turning her head from the floor to his face, "What _were _you thinking about earlier? When you were staring at _Storm Rising_ for forever?"

"Oh," he said, "Just about the signings for that book. A certain signing actually. Very memorable."

"Really? And why might that be?" she asked accusingly. Her eyes were skeptical.

"It was a signing," he said, sitting back down onto the sofa and looking at her face, "Where I met a beautiful woman. A woman who stood out from everyone else. Articulate, not spastically giddy. Not like some little lap dog on steroids like the rest of the fans."

"She had this air of mystery and intrigue, of sophistication… she was a brilliant star in the same-old, same-old night sky I was beginning to tire of," he said, watching her expression grow confused and then something else he couldn't put a name on, "A woman who I got to talk to for a much cherished moment due to my pen running out of ink. A woman who I still to this day have a memory of, she made such a big impression on me... even now after all this time. A homicide detective-to-be, in fact."

Her expression had shifted again, to that warm smile she had given him in the bank. That smile she apparently gave him behind his back all the time according to Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie. Lanie called it the I'm-so-in-love-with-you smile. He had to agree with the naming, seeing that smile again now.

"Must've been quite the woman to leave such an impression," she said quietly.

"Tell me about it," he said, "And any man who gets to work with her now is certainly a very privileged one. Name was… ah. Kate. Do you know a Kate in homicide?"

He winked at her and she made a face at him, making him laugh.

"Didn't think I made that big of an impression," she said quietly after his laughter died down, "Thought you didn't remember any of your fans at book signings, you told me that yourself."

"Well, this was a very special fan indeed. Stood out," he said, smiling, "You think you didn't stand out? Oh Beckett, Beckett, Beckett..."

She gave him a look before his phone went off.

"Looks like I'd best be on my way detective," he said, after reading an S.O.S. text from the daughter. Apparently his mother was happily rambling about the "glory days" again and if he didn't come stop his mother his darling daughter would go crazy. He told Beckett and she laughed.

"You'd best go rescue your daughter," she said, "See you tomorrow Castle."

"See you," he said, grabbing his things and heading out the door. She smiled as the door closed, and headed over to the staircase. She picked up _Storm Rising_, her fingers brushing over its smooth dark blue cover. Opening it up to the page where he had signed it, she read the short but meaningful message with a small smile. He had made quite the impression himself. Especially considering it was on a tired detective-to-be who had waited in line for hours on her only day off. On a whim she headed towards the bathroom to set a bath.

She had some reading to do.


End file.
